Intuition Versus Intellect
I begin many of my lectures by asking those in attendance if they can perceive the future. Most people will answer in the negative. We are taught that it is impossible to see the future, as it isn’t here yet. But what if I qualify this question by asking, “Have you ever had a dream about something, and then it came true” or “Have you ever had a feeling that something was going to happen, and it did,” or “Did you ever just know something was going to happen and it did?”
In all likelihood, you have had at least one of these experiences in your lifetime (though probably you have experienced several). Most people do. However, the personality ego mind (which I call the rational mind) prevents you from accepting the fact that it is possible to peer into the Great Beyond to see the future, feel the future, or just know the future. To varying degrees, everyone has this ability.
As you develop your own intuition, you will come to learn that the intellect is the real obstacle. Students will always have doubt, questioning whether what they are seeing or perceiving is real or just a creation of their imagination. All you need is someone to validate that your perceptions are genuine, and then the tenacity to keep practicing.
One of the lessons I give my students is to tell me what you see, and not what you think. Thinking is a process of using our reasoning faculties to come to a conclusion. It is a process tempered by our own experiences and prejudices. This is not the same as observing. A true practitioner of the intuitive arts does not think, but merely observes and reports back the observations.
I had a rude awakening early in my career when a client in real estate inquired about her nephew (she herself turned out to be quite psychic). I was in a light state of meditation, and I saw an image of a man in his late twenties who had no legs. The upper body was clearly visible. He was smiling. Here is where I started to deviate from the intuitive mind. I began to “interpret” what I saw. “He doesn’t have a leg to stand on,” I said, “It doesn’t seem like he can support himself. I don’t think he gets around very easily.” She pointed her finger at me and scolded me, saying, “You’re not telling me what you are actually seeing!”
I found out later that the nephew had had both his legs amputated. My well-meaning interpretations were not helpful because I was making mistake number one and letting my intellect get in the way of my intuitive vision. It was a lesson I never forgot.
When you perceive something with your intuition, it is your job as the intuitive to just spit it out. It is the job of the client (or the person you are helping) to interpret and implement the information you give. A few months ago, I took a call on a radio show from a woman in Edmonton whose nephew had gone to Colorado to work, and went missing. He was a father with a young family. I could see him plainly in my vision, face down and pale, with his pants pulled down, laying in a river. When I described what I saw, the lady was relieved. What the family wanted was closure, and I was able to perceive that someone would find the body. She called me a month later to report that, indeed, the body was found, as I had described it. This video documents it:
With evidence that what you are perceiving is real, and helpful, your confidence will grow (and your abilities will blossom). While this kind of confirmation is not necessary, it can help you to let go of those thoughts that you are inventing or imagining the information. In the beginning, students are plagued with questions of whether they are making it up, or whether they are seeing something they want or expect. I call this the chattering mind. I teach my students techniques to distract the rational mind with conscious breathing, and to quiet the chattering mind so that the message of the intuitive mind can be perceived with as little colouring as possible.
The day I had my first intuitive reading in 1974, my family was given hope. This is the greatest gift any intuitive can give a client or a friend. Ross Peterson (known as “the new Edgar Cayce”) gave a reading about my daughter, Cheri, who had been suffering with convulsions, and had been institutionalized in a home for crippled children near Belleville. He told me that pressures in her neck caused by improper alignment were causing the seizures. He assured my wife and I that Cheri could be saved with a few simple treatments. Before this, no one could tell my wife or I what had happened to Cheri at her birth, nor what could anyone do to give her back the life she deserved. The information from that reading changed my life.
Can you be a Ross Peterson, an Edgar Cayce, or a Douglas Cottrell? I tell my students that only I can be me, and only you can be you. But if you feel the urge to develop your intuition and the many abilities associated with it - from clairvoyance and clairsentience to spiritual healing, prediction, or prophecy - I encourage you to do so, to the best that you possibly can. Take your steps. Find a mentor who can guide you. Small successes along the way will inspire you to keep going. Learn to relax and temper the rational mind that likes to think it is in control. Your intuition can put you in touch with knowledge beyond your conscious understanding…but not by thinking!
Faith is built upon Belief and Belief is built upon Evidence